Clubhouse app case: Court grants bail to one accused man, sends him for behavioural counselling
The Mumbai Police had arrested Yashkumar Parashar and two others for allegedly making derogatory comments about Muslim women on the audio chat app.
A Mumbai court on Tuesday granted bail to one of the persons accused of making derogatory comments against Muslim women on the audio chat app Clubhouse, reported The Indian Express.
Yashkumar Parashar, a 22-year old law student, got the bail on multiple conditions, including a 15-day mandatory behavioural counselling. The other accused persons arrested by the Mumbai Police in the case are Akash Suyal (19) and Jaishnav Kakkar (21).
The Mumbai Police had arrested all the three accused persons on January 20 from Haryana for making the derogatory comments about Muslim women.
The Delhi Police have arrested Rahul Kapoor (18), who has claimed to have created the chat room on the Clubhouse app on the directions of a person called “Sallos”.
Clubhouse is a social audio app, where members can participate and listen in to chat sessions and discussions based on their topics of interest. Kapoor, who has been arrested by the Delhi Police, had allegedly created the chatroom where a conversation on the topic, “Muslim gals are more beautiful than Hindu gals” took place.
The three accused persons have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections that provide punishment for promoting enmity on religious grounds, acts intended to outrage religious feelings, sexual harassment and stalking, the Mumbai Police said.
Parashar’s lawyers, Akshay Bafna and Gayatri Gokhale, submitted to the court that their client had been falsely implicated, reported Live Law. In the bail plea, they argued that Parashar was a student with no criminal antecedents.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Bafna said: “We had told the court that fake accounts with photos of my client were used… he is a bright student with a bright future and does not have any prior criminal record.”
Gokhale added that Parashar will have to stay in Mumbai for a month and report to the investigating officer.
The court will decide on the bail pleas of the Suyal and Jaishnav a few days later as they have tested positive for the coronavirus disease.
The comments made on the Clubhouse app was the third instance in the last eight months in which derogatory remarks made against Muslim women on online platforms were shared widely.
Earlier, two apps were used to display photos of Muslim women for “online auction”.
The “Sulli Deals” app emerged in July, and “Bulli Bai” on January 1. The apps have been taken down from hosting platform GitHub following outrage on social media. Both “Bulli” and “Sulli” are derogatory terms used to refer to Muslim women.